Aboriginal Site Is On Pilgrimage

RELIGION

October 31, 1998|By Religion News Service

GENEVA, Switzerland - Australia's churches are planning an ecumenical millennium pilgrimage by religious leaders to Uluru - a giant rock in the center of the continent that is a focus of Aboriginal spirituality.

Leaders of between 12 and 17 Australian churches are expected to make the pilgrimage to Uluru, each accompanied by a young person, in June 2000 during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, according to Ecumenical News International, a religion news agency.

The pilgrimage is being sponsored by the National Council of Churches of Australia.

It will end at Uluru - formerly known as Ayers Rock - with an ecumenical celebration of Pentecost and will initiate a national process of reconciliation expected to last a year.

A focus of the reconciliation will be the Aboriginal population of Australia, which has suffered at the hands of European settlers who arrived in the country 210 years ago, the news service said.